ABP News leverages OOH reach to drive audience engagement during polls
By VJ Media Bureau - May 19, 2014
Milestone Brandcom rolled out an extensive 8-week OOH campaign Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Patna and Kolkata, dovetailed with highly innovative on-ground activities
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The channel had been airing election-related programmes for a year, such as,'Pradhanmantri','7 Race Course Road','Ground Zero','Kaun Banega Pradhanmantri','Nukad Behas' etc. to enrich their viewers with political knowledge and empower them in making the right decisions. This campaign showcased the channel as being a provider of correct and factual reports. The campaign communication was built around the tagline:'ABP apko rakhe aage' ('ABP keeps you head').
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Nabendu Bhattacharyya, Managing Director, Milestone Brandcom said, "This was a very significant project for us as we were amidst the biggest political event of our country and ABP News is a prestigious media house known for its honest and comprehensive coverage of news. We utilized all media resources to create an expansive campaign to reach out to people across barriers and have used some very unconventional tools to do so such as setting up tea stalls and inserting leaflets in tiffins delivered by Dabbawallas.â€
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Overall, 900 sites were acquired in the OOH space for the entire campaign. The channel preferred large sized hoardings to send out the message loud and clear and at high-traffic locations such as bus stands, railway stations and small towns. It also strategically targeted cities and towns based on their significance and depending on the political impression that was needed to be created there.
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The channel also utilised the on-ground platform by taking an innovative approach in specific locations. The channel zeroed in on places where people gather, particularly in cities and small towns, and targeted those places in a differential manner.
Additionally, to leave a higher impact, the campaign message was tweaked based on the location and the audience. Some of the key on-ground initiatives were:
• Teacup Branding: Tea, an iconic drink in India, became very important in this election. The channel took it as an opportunity to convey a message. Tea cups were branded with the message,'Chai pete pete apni rajneetik raye na banaye, sahi rajneetik raye banana ke liye dekhiye ABP news', to further drive home the importance of watching the ABP channel. In 15,000 tea stalls in around 200 cities in UP, Mumbai and Delhi danglers and posters were put up asserting the campaign and not to form a political opinion while drinking tea. Around 25 lakh tea cups branded with the same message were distributed at these stalls. This was an attempt to cover the highly promoted concept of politicians having chai with the public during these elections. Also, posters were pasted at those tea stalls communicating the message'Yahan rajeentik raye banana mana hai, sahi rajneetik raye banana ke liye dekhiye ABP news'.
• Railway Station Announcements: The channel chose railway stations as a strategic location and ran relevant announcements.
• Dabbawalas: The channel took the support of Mumbai's biggest group, the Dabbawalas, and inserted leaflets inside the lunchboxes with their communication. The message reached 3 lakh people.
• McDonald's: To capture youth, the channel reached McDonald's Delhi outlets and installed branded tent cards, trays and stances.
• Society Parks: In these much familiar hubs of Delhi, park benches were acquired and branded with messages targeting morning walkers of the city.
• Transit Mode: To reach the interiors of UP, a van activity was organised in 125 cities which interacted with the audiences.
The idea behind optimising the strengths of on-ground was to support the OOH medium. "Just putting up hoardings becomes a very static medium and it can also become a blind spot. But if you are able to engage with the audience beyond mall activation, then you will definitely get a winning idea. If they crunch with the idea and the activation is done well, you could possibly get a much more'wow' factor and big word of mouth publicity,†said Singh.
Given that it was election time, it was challenging to occupy the best sites. However, the agency planned out and booked the sites in advance. Also, weather conditions like high velocity wind created problems. But with tight monitoring, the damaged displays were rectified on an immediate basis, which ensured smooth visibility.
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